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Playstation Network to overtake Xbox Live?
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Uh. It's a sphere with shapes on it. Can't think of anything witty.
Is the Playstation Network catching up to the illustrious Xbox Live? What with the release of Killzone 2 (and with its substantial host of sales) and a mess of high-quality offerings available on the system, it seems as though this could be the case.
Along with the recent release of the poetic and beautiful game of intense artistic expression, Flower, the Playstation Network could be adding another popular independent developer game of decent renown and popularity in that of Braid. The recent acquisition of the former Xbox Live Arcade exclusive by Hothead Games has lead to its release on Mac and PC.
Since Hothead, the developers responsible for the the Penny Arcade Adventures, has put their games on the PS3, it doesn't seem too much of a stretch to assume from that point that Braid, too, will arrive in the fullness of time, as well as on Steam (it might already be there, for all I know).
This sort of thing makes me wonder if the PS3 may begin to undercut the 360 with its online service. With what may end up being a killer app in Killzone 2, Sony may end up getting the sheer numbers of online players into the Network for their gaming. In addition, success may compound with the potential of snatching a big exclusive from the arcade.
To be fair, the catalogue for the 360 arcade is pretty darn impressive, but it seems that, with the exception of Braid, they don't have quite as many creative exclusives as the PSN is gathering. Titles like fl0w, The Last Guy, the very strange Pain, Everyday Shooter (which did end up on Windows), the whole PixelJunk thing, the incredibly bizarre Noby Noby Boy, and a smattering of classics, not quite as many as the XBLA, mind you. They do, however, have several classic and popular PSOne games on there, such as Medieval, Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, a few Crash Bandicoots, and several others.
Again, to be fair, XBLA has Castle Crashers, which is superb, and they have Marathon 2: Durandal (if they had the whole trilogy I'd be more impressed).
There is always Home, as well, but that seems to have gotten a lukewarm reception of relative disinterest. Whether or not it takes off is anyone's guess, but it does give the PSN another piece of individuality, at the very least.
Granted, XBox Live seems to have a pretty big lead in terms of utilization, and network downloadable games provide just one tiny facet of the services. Who knows? The PS3 has kicked off the year with a great start, and things are looking much better for the system that was, not too long ago, looking fairly forlorn. We'll see what happens in the near future.
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